DID YOU KNOW THAT: Pentecostals were leaders in ordination of women?

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Asen Shudov | PentecostalTheology.com

               

DID YOU KNOW THAT: Pentecostals were the leaders in the ordination of women?

Because they are less bureaucratic and more “gifting driven,” Pentecostals were the first (not liberal Protestants) to ordain women. Aimee Semple McPherson was one of the first American mega-church senior pastors (Angelus Temple in L.A. seated 5,000 a service in its prime).

http://www.pentecostaltheology.com/pentecostalism-is-quintessentially-american/

 

22 Comments

  • Reply April 26, 2016

    Varnel Watson

    Pentecostals were the first (not liberal Protestants) to ordain women. Aimee Semple McPherson was one of the first American mega-church senior pastors (Angelus Temple in L.A. seated 5,000 a service in its prime).

  • Reply July 1, 2016

    Jon Ray

    Charles Page Pentecostalism supports women in ministry

    • Reply July 1, 2016

      Charles Page

      Just doesn’t support female bishops

    • Reply July 2, 2016

      Mary Ellen Nissley

      Bibllcally, what is a bishop, anyway?

    • Reply July 2, 2016

      Mary Ellen Nissley

      Well, isn’t it important to know exactly what it is that you don’t believe the Bible allows? LOL

    • Reply July 2, 2016

      Charles Page

      Biblically a female can’t be an elder

    • Reply July 2, 2016

      Mary Ellen Nissley

      Sir, you might want to look at the Greek word translated “elder”.

    • Reply July 2, 2016

      Charles Page

      Can a female be the husband of one wife?

    • Reply July 2, 2016

      Mary Ellen Nissley

      ♫ here we go again…

    • Reply July 2, 2016

      Mary Ellen Nissley

      I’m tired. Just got home from 8 hrs of work, at midnight. Have to get up at 6:30 to lead a prayer group at church. Have to work another 8 hr shift tomorrow evening.
      I am going to bed. Goodnight. 🙂

    • Reply July 2, 2016

      Charles Page

      Are you a feminist?

    • Reply July 2, 2016

      Mary Ellen Nissley

      I don’t know what you mean by that term. All I know is that I grew up in a church setting that didn’t even allow women to join in mixed Sunday School discussions. And a woman’s testimony had to carefully steer away from expounding any Scripture, for fear of teaching the men.

      God set me free from that. I have learned from the Word that I am a SON of God, and not just a daughter… check out the Greek wording of Gal 3:26… and on this basis, there is (currently) neither male nor female in Christ Jesus.

      Just as in Christ there is neither black nor white, and on that basis, you would not refuse any man office or voice to preach in the church… even so, God sees male and female. We are all SONS.

  • Reply July 2, 2016

    Mary Ellen Nissley

    Oh yes! in fact, if it weren’t for the leadership of women in the church, Pentecostalism would probably be far different today.

    Women were respected as spiritual leaders in the Pentecostal movement until the Pentecostals began to try to become like other Evangelicals.
    But why did they begin doing this?

    First, I think they felt ignorant and uneducated, so they began to study other Evangelical study materials… not realizing that learning to think like non-Pentecostals would create non-Pentecostal believers.
    Second, I think they felt looked down on for their ignorance, and longed to have just a little respect from the anti-Pentecostal crowd… so they started trying to become more educated (as above)… which resulted in the slide away from the dynamic Pentecostalism of “the good old days.”

    • Reply July 2, 2016

      Link Hudson

      Maybe they began to study the Bible.

    • Reply July 3, 2016

      Link Hudson

      Isaac Mugerwa I think the Pentecostal movement discovered some truths, but there are many Biblical truths and practices that are not the common practice of the movement. For example, the movement still has the one-pastor system. Church meetings are pastor-focused rather than the type of meeting we see taught in I Corinthians 14. The commands of I Corinthians 14, at best, seem to be treated as something truncated to fit into the Pentecostalized version of the traditional Protestant liturgical meeting. There are also Pentecostal beliefs and practices that are either unbiblical or not specifically Biblical. Some people treat cultural packaging of Pentecostalism– e.g. altar calls, certain styles of music, certain hair does, etc. as if these were essential aspects of the Gospel.

  • Reply July 2, 2016

    Charles Page

    I well remember the good old days of the “Ladies Willing Band”

    Yes they held the church together

  • Reply July 2, 2016

    Link Hudson

    In Biblical times, were there women among the ‘bearded ones’ of the church?

  • Reply October 9, 2018

    Varnel Watson

    Do you agree or disagree with this statement? WHY?

  • Reply October 10, 2018

    Donald W. Dayton

    Don’t overstate the role of Pentecostals. They inherited this practice from tbe holiness movement. The first woman to be ordained in 1853 was Antoinette Brown a grad of Finney’s Oberlin College. The preacher on “women’s right to preach the gospel” was Luther Lee a founder of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, which began to ordain women in the 1850’s. In 1968 this church merged with the Pigrim Holiness Church. By that time the two brances had fully ordained literally thousands of women. The practice was common among Nazarenes and the Church of God, Anderson, sometimes up to a third of ministers being women. Some early women pentecostal ministers were holiness preachers before becoming Pentecostal. Think of Carrie Judd Montgomery or Maria Woodworh-Etter. Aimee Semple McPherson came out of the Salvation Army in Canada. The Army does not ordain men or women but “commissioned” both. The Army is arguably the most feminist and egalitarian movement in Christian History. Aimee was deeply impressed by Evangeline Booth, the first general of the SA, especially in her preching style. And so on. For more details see the relevant chapter in my REDISCOVERING AN EVANGELICAL HERITAGE.

  • Reply October 10, 2018

    Varnel Watson

    I just read where Dr. Donald W. Dayton wrote

    They inherited this practice from tbe holiness movement. The first woman to be ordained in 1853 was Antoinette Brown a grad of Finney’s Oberlin College. The preacher on “women’s right to preach the gospel” was Luther Lee a founder of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, which began to ordain women in the 1850’s. In 1968 this church merged with the Pigrim Holiness Church. By that time the two brances had fully ordained literally thousands of women. The practice was common among Nazarenes and the Church of God, Anderson, sometimes up to a third of ministers being women. Some early women pentecostal ministers were holiness preachers before becoming Pentecostal. Think of Carrie Judd Montgomery or Maria Woodworh-Etter. Aimee Semple McPherson came out of the Salvation Army in Canada. The Army does not ordain men or women but “commissioned” both. The Army is arguably the most feminist and egalitarian movement in Christian History. Aimee was deeply impressed by Evangeline Booth, the first general of the SA, especially in her preching style. And so on. For more details see the relevant chapter in my REDISCOVERING AN EVANGELICAL HERITAGE.

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